2014 looks like the start of an exciting journey for Ivy and Gold. Laura Cress chats with Rachel Wilkinson and Jamie Davies to find out more.

Ivy and Gold - Rachel Wilkinson on vocals and Jamie Davies on drums/keyboard - may look the part of a serious electro duo on stage, but get them on an adrenaline fuelled high after a powerful acoustic set at the Camden Record Store and their innate goofiness (particularly Ms Wilkinson's) comes out almost immediately.

It's no wonder they're excited - with their most recent EP Eye of the Storm gathering media attention particularly for its haunting track 'Not Enough', a headline show confirmed at St Pancras Church in September and an album on the horizon for early next year, 2014 looks like the start of an exciting journey for the group. Naturally then we started off this journey on a dark night on the side streets of Camden, talking about a mythical meeting of the Smiths at a back garden meat-fest...

How did you guys meet?

J: We met at a BBQ - I used to be in a rock band when I was younger and Rachel's sister's boyfriend was a producer, and was producing my old band's EP so I met Rachel through that!

R: BBQ's are the place to meet!

J: Apparently Morrissey met Johnny Marr at a BBQ...

He probably didn't eat anything there though...?

J: Yeah I guess just lots of potato salad.

R: Some leaves.

Nutritious. And after the fateful BBQ what happened?

J: I was studying commercial music at Westminster which was more about management, but I took a song writing module - having never written a song before - and then realised the error of my ways...I knew that Rachel was a singer/songwriter so I asked her to help me!

R: And help I did! Then we said "actually, these songs are quite good - we should work together!"

J: We also did a bunch of covers online for a while too.

What songs did you cover?

J: Gotye, Katy Perry, nothing of a particular genre, just songs that we liked and fancied covering! And from that we went on to write our own material.

Where does the band name come from?

R: Well. We were called Emperors. But then we realised that some band in Australia had the same name as us and our friend had just been through a massive legal process with the band that he manages because of the same problem and it cost them a lot of money, so we thought we better find a new one! And you can go on this website that generates band names for you, but they're all AWFUL - one of the ones that came up was literally just "Jamie and The Jellyfish"! Needless to say we couldn't find anything decent. So in the end we turned to our friends, one of whom suggested Ivy and Gold, which is our favourite Bombay Bicycle Club song.

So the name is actually from Bombay Bicycle Club?

R: Yes...I wish there was a cooler story to that! We're just massive Bombay Bicycle Club fans.

Nothing wrong with that! Your latest EP Eye of the Storm has just come out - what's the reaction been like to it?

J: It's been great. We've had some radio play, we've been on BBC Introducing and Alex Baker has been playing us on Kerrang!

You're doing more gigs after the latest EP launch too - as a two piece band and with Jamie generally sitting down playing the piano, Rachel what's it like for you standing out at the front on your own?

R: It's something I'm quite comfortable with really. I just like staring at everyone and trying to freak them out with the lyrics.

You do have some quite dark lyrics!

R: I know, I like to accentuate them when it's an acoustic set as well, like shouting "love is blind!" at them.

J: You always say that you'd rather sing on stage then talk on stage.

R: Yes! I'm so shit at talking on stage. I'd rather sing what I have to say, like (starts to sing) "Hello, we're Ivy and Gold, how are youuu?"

If you want to conduct the rest of the interview by singing the answers that's fine by us.

R: (singing) "I will sing the rest of the interview in tuuuune.."

Please do! What gigs have you got coming up?

R: (speaking now) We've got a showcase on the 30th at the Metropolitan pub in Westbourne Park.

J: And we're playing Hop Farm Festival and Elderflower Festival.

R: We'll also be releasing more EPs and hopefully an album next year.

What will you call the album?

R: Jamie and the Jellyfish of course!

Catch Ivy and Gold at The Metropolitan, W11 tonight (30th April). The St. Pancras show is on September 17th with tickets on sale Friday 2nd May.